Josh Mack blogging at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts, and occasionally on; bicycles, politics, Brooklyn, parenting, crafts, and good reading. Currently helping to build a new NYC neighborhood news site - nearsay.com, that celebrates the voices that make our city. Subscribe to the daily newsletter it gives you what you need to know.

1) Making online content default to public instead of private creates community

2) Every web service needs to have a profile for every user

3) Users should be encouraged to comment on other user's posts

4) Tagging content is better than foldering content and the tags should be public

5) Users should be encouraged to tag their content when it is posted to the service

6) Widgets should be used to make content available off of the service

7) Content on the service should be "bloggable" with one click

8) Engagement metrics like comments, favorites, views, can and
should be used to drive discovery (the most interesting algorithm)

9) Geotagging is great but we've yet to see a great interface for geotagging

10) Machine tagging (autotagging) is the next big thing in web 2.0

Coincidentally I recevied an e-mail from them to ugrade my old skool Flickr reg to Yahoo reg. would add to this list their tone and ways of dealing with their users. Inclusiveness, humility, and seeming joy at the way people are innovating with their APIs.

January 26, 2007

Very interesting idea of dynamically mapping places mentioned in books in Google's book search. The Alienist etc. I wanted to do this with Dylan's autobiography. It would be great if Google could also make dynamic bibliographies of mentions in the books. (via Techmeme)

Calvin Trillin puts out a business idea for mobile and 2.0 developers at the end of his article on test-driving the self-parking Lexus. He jokes about an in car system that knows alternate side-of-the-street parking. Now that is a service I'd love if I ever upgrade my 18 year old Saab to one that not only has air-bags and a built-in navigation system. I'd improve it by having it refuse to start if the next day is an obscure Holiday. It would be great as well if it could think ahead and alert me to look for a Tuesday spot if the following Tuesday is not in play.

January 23, 2007

I'm also fond of the name cranky ,Eons new search that only returns 4 items, clearing away the supposed clutter for people over 50

Interesting that LibraryThing and other book sharing sites, of which there are many aren't being thought of as the place for reading groups and other work with book publishers. Instead, I think gather.com has that territory covered with certain ad agencies whether or not it is true.

There is a certain irony to being invited by Kevin Bacon to join sixdegrees.com in an AIM message.

January 20, 2007

Denton on Widgets "Let's get something straight here. A widget is an affiliate marketing program, no more, no less..."

Wilson on widgets "...Nick is missing the point of widgets entirely. You can't build a business on widgets alone. But if you have a business; YouTube, Flickr, Delicious, MyBlogLog, Digg, etc, etc, you can get distribution on other's pages with widgets. It's a content and brand distribution strategy."

All of this is in response to the NYT article about widgets so aren't we all just widgets in a content and brand distribution strategy?

I've been thinking and working on some widget oriented projects and have some on my blog. I'm wrestling with them from two sides, in some I think it is important to create the same utility that my flickr, delicious, and even my TypeLists bring to my blog. These connect disparate services together in one place, a distributed CMS of sorts. If I pulled in polls and surveys and an Amazon, ThisNext, or Etsy list, it would be for the same reasons. For others like the Pandora widget it is in a way promoting a service I like. I use it sometimes at work and they've allowed me to personalize it a bit while giving a handy way for interested visitors to start a radio station of their own. For widgets which don't offer any personalization for the user I see them evolving more into an affiliate marketing model with some points or renumeration for people who post the blogs and then potentially back to the owners of the systems in which people host their areas.

BitPass closes down."The company pitched its services towards the small and indie content providers to begin with and even though it tried working with media companies in selling their content, the general online premium content market didn’t grow as fast as everyone predicted 3-4 years ago, as the online ad market came back."

January 19, 2007

January 18, 2007

LinkedIn has introduced an "Answers" program. Very interesting idea. Since one is linked to their answer if it is brilliant or shows a mastery of the field the answerer becomes a more valuable networker or job candidate depending on what they are after. I have a question for anyone who wants to share their expertise. How could I link to this feature without sharing my log-in info since it is for members only?

January 16, 2007

Lost - best news, blogs, and photos - Boxxet: "Just reading about Boxxet on Paid Content. I like the way in the "boxxets" they are dynamicallyy creating header graphics based on the photos they are pulling. Interesting site. The article links to another site called Zimbio that is worth checking out though on the surface I prefer Boxxet. Will all of this human powered info be searchable by Google?